CLK Enerji, Turkey's largest energy utility, has selected Oracle Utilities solutions to transform and modernize its billing systems and improve service quality for its customers across all areas of its business.
With the changing landscape of the Turkish energy market, new demands are being placed on the country's utilities requiring them to develop more customer-centric services and adapt their operations for the digital age. In a move designed to lower operating costs, increase accuracy and streamline its customer operations, CLK Enerji is implementing Oracle Utilities Customer Care & Billing (CC&B) and Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management (MDM) to deliver a more flexible, performing service to its growing base of energy and cost-conscious customers...

Oracle announced that Lumentum Holdings Inc. has become the first company to go live with Oracle Global Trade Management Cloud Service (GTM) for product classification and export compliance screening. Their five-month implementation, which includes an out-of-the-box integration with Oracle E-Business Suite Managed Cloud Service. Lumentum manufactures and exports optical networking devices, commercial lasers and 3D sensing tools that are used in almost every network in the world. Telecommunication companies, enterprises and data centers around the globe depend on Lumentum's innovative components and modules.

Oracle has announced a Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) recruitment drive to hire 1,400 new cloud sales professionals who will play a vital role in fuelling the growth of the company's cloud business throughout the region.

The new roles will be based in six locations: Amsterdam (The Netherlands); Cairo and Dubai (Middle East); Dublin (Ireland); Malaga (Spain) and Prague (Czech Republic).

Michael Hickins writes in Forbes,
"Oracle CEO Mark Hurd repeatedly drove home the point that global economic conditions and financial returns are making it increasingly difficult for chief executives to drive revenue growth through innovation. Unless, that is, they use cloud computing to free up IT budgets, he argued during a keynote presentation during the Oracle CloudWorld New York conference Wednesday..."

Monica Mehta writes, "Japan - like many developed nations - is facing a demographics crunch.

The world's third largest economy just marked a dubious milestone: the steepest population decline in the country's history, with the number of individuals age 65 and older approximately twice that of children under 15. Indeed, to fend off future shocks to the labor market, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently demanded his government create a plan to raise birthrates and stem further declines..."

"Deep learning has become one of the hottest topics in machine learning in recent years. With TensorFlow, the deep learning platform that we recently released as an open-source project, our goal was to bring the capabilities of deep learning to everyone. So far, we are extremely excited by the uptake: more than 4000 users have forked it on GitHub in just a few weeks, and the project has been starred more than 16000 times by enthusiasts around the globe..."

"Humanity has big hopes for artificial intelligence, but in reality machines have a long way to go to catch up with the human brain. Enter Harvard University, which has just won a $28 million grant to change all that.

The grant aims to help scientists figure out why mammalian brains are so good at learning, and then design better computers accordingly. Harvard researchers will record activity in the brain's visual cortex in 'unprecedented detail,' map its connections and then reverse-engineer the data to inspire better computer algorithms for learning..."

"As big data and related technologies are coming on strong in 2016, many members of the vendor ecosystem are weighing with predictions for what we'll see in the next 12 months. Courtesy of Narrative Science, CEO Stuart Frankel and Chief Scientist Kristian Hammond made a list below of 2016 predictions for artificial intelligence and big data. I do beg to differ about data scientists not being as sexy as once thought!..."

"Andrew Moore, dean of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, shares with CIO.com his thoughts on where artificial intelligence and cognitive computing research is heading.

In the past two decades, we've seen chess grandmasters and the best Jeopardy players in the world alike fall in competition to computers. Heads-up No-limit Texas Hold 'em poker may be next. But the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is about way more than games..."

"Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced the public release of the largest-ever machine learning data set to the academic research community. With this release, the company aims to advance the field of large-scale machine learning and recommender systems, and to help level the playing field between industrial and academic research..."

"Internet of Things startup Wi-Next will add IBM analytics to its systems for industrial quality control and predictive maintenance.

The added capabilities, including some powered by artificial intelligence, are designed to help food-processing companies and consumer product makers keep production lines running smoothly despite what's sometimes a breakneck pace.

The partnership should help deliver one of the most important benefits promised by industrial IoT: preventing unexpected shutdowns. It's also aimed at keeping every product that rolls off the line exactly the same..."

Mike Mulkey blogs, "EMC and Oracle have thousands of mutual customer installations worldwide who need a storage management suite which centralizes, automates, and accelerates data backup and recovery across their IT environment. The EMC NetWorker software provides the power and flexibility to meet these challenges on Oracle SPARC servers.

A new white paper is now released which reviews how NetWorker takes advantage of the capabilities of the SPARC T5-2 server and performs better compared to previous SPARC or x86 platforms due to the T5-2 server's enhanced resources and capabilities. This paper also highlights the best practices for optimal performance using EMC NetWorker on the SPARC T5-2 server platform."

Frank Wickham blogs, "Oracle has an entire family of engineered systems that are pre-integrated to reduce the cost and complexity of enterprise wide IT infrastructures while increasing productivity and performance. Only Oracle can innovate and optimize at every layer of our Red Stack to simplify data center operations, drive down costs, and accelerate business innovation. Let this serve as a quick introduction to Oracle's Engineered Systems Family; Exadata, Exalogic, SuperCluster, Exalytics, Private Cloud Appliance (OPCA), Big Data Appliance (BDA), Database Appliance, and now the Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance (ZDLRA)..."

There was good news Jan. 22 from 451 Research - although not all that surprising - for the cloud storage industry: Public cloud storage spending will double by next year.

This is not a trivial market by any stretch. The global cloud storage business sector has been projected by another researcher, MarketsandMarkets, to grow from $18.87 billion in 2015 to $65.41 billion by 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.2 percent during the forecast period..."

But when it comes to the practical, day-to-day existence with all of our modern devices, connectivity is an important story. When you survey the landscape of connectivity topics, it's hard to ignore the impact various types of USB have had. Sure, the multiple new wireless standards tend to get a lot more attention. However, for most people, wired connections between devices are still an extremely common means of making things work, and no wired connection is more ubiquitous than USB. (Except for power, but we'll get to that in a second.)..."

"A new era is dawning for virtual reality. New systems that will hit store shelves in coming months are going to offer amazing and immersive experiences that will blow you away.

But these new VR systems are the epitome of first-generation technology products. They'll be expensive. They'll have annoying design features and limitations. And the early adopters will essentially be guinea pigs as content producers try to figure out what kinds of experiences work in VR and which don't..."

"It seems the corporate and government related adoption of blockchain technology is picking up pace. Over the last couple of days we've seen China announce its intentions to introduce a block chain based digital currency for mainstream adoption and Australian banks initiate blockchain tech hubs in Hong Kong with plans to do the same in London next quarter..."

"Michael J Casey works on blockchain-based solutions for the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. He is also a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and the author of several books including 'The Age of Cryptocurrency', which he authored with Paul Vigna.

In this piece, Casey examines recent events in the bitcoin world that culminated in the departure of developer Mike Hearn, providing his perspective on the resulting debate..."

"The Bretton Woods 2015 White Paper lists the goals, opportunities and threats faced by Bitcoin industry. It also offers certain recommendations which could help build a harmonious relationship between the Bitcoin industry and regulators.

The report, a comprehensive study on the history, currency status and future of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology was released by Joe Colangelo, the Executive Director of Consumer's Research - the organization that commissioned this study..."

"'The progress of mankind is marked by the rise of new technologies and the human ingenuity they unlock.'

That's the glowing foreword to a new report on blockchain and distributed ledger tech issued by the UK government's Chief Scientific Adviser this week.

Taking a positive outlook on the emerging technology, the document recommends a broad government initiative to develop and demonstrate blockchain and distributed ledger technology, one that has caught the attention of the global media while emboldening the growing chorus of "blockchain" enthusiasts..."

"The future of Bitcoin has been the topic of debate for weeks now, ever since former Bitcoin Core developer decided to prematurely conclude a still ongoing experiment. In Mike Hearn's words, bitcoin was a failed experiment and its demise is imminent. This was not the first time someone had wrongly predicted the future of the most widely used digital currency in the world. It had died 88 times before Mike Hearn's prediction and four more times since then...."

"Oracle was born from the idea of having a database with single source base (in C) that could be used on multiple operating systems. With this philosophy, they brought the Oracle Database to UNIX in 1983 with Bell Laboratories' UNIX.

During the same period of time, enterprises wanted to standardize interfaces to not require re-implementation of software for different platforms, and UNIX was chosen as the base for the standard system interfaces..."

"I had the chance to talk to Ticketmaster's Victor Gajendran who will be attending (and speaking) for the first time at SCaLE 14x this year, which is taking place on January 21 and 22 in Pasadena, California. He'll speak to attendees about how his company uses open source and how to empower your small teams to be part of a large, effective whole.

Find out more about his talk, Lessons learned (the hard way) by doing DevOps at scale, in this interview..."

"DevOps isn't easy: It can be a struggle to implement and manage successfully. A DevOps assessment will tell you if the business and its IT organization are ready to make changes.

The rapid cycle times embraced by the DevOps software development and deployment methodology allow businesses to capture opportunities faster than traditional software development approaches. Small, incremental changes with DevOps mean that a business can try new ideas, take more risks -- even fail without dire consequences, which are some of the reasons why it has supplanted traditional waterfall-style development..."

"As my role demands, I work with various large enterprises looking at implementing DevOps to improve their software delivery cycle times. I have seen many strategies being adopted by them-some working, and some not working yet. I have pulled together some of the more common ones so we could debate them to see if these indeed are worth looking at. With that, I kick off my 'DevOps Debates' series.

The first one on the list is a popular one: If you want to create anything in large volumes, you need to standardize the manufacturing process. That makes it easier to understand what is going on, control the quality and later change processes if necessary. This is happening in a similar fashion for software delivery processes and in DevOps..."

ICA Gruppen AB is a retail corporate group that includes ICA Sweden and RIMI Baltic grocery stores, ICA Bank, ICA Insurance, ICA Facilities, and ICA Pharmacy. With annual revenue of US$10 billion, ICA Group is responsible for grocery sales of 1,500 independently owned stores. ICA Group manages all central functions, such as IT services, marketing, sourcing, and supplies.

Chris Kawalek blogs, "During Oracle OpenWorld 2015 Oracle released new features for Oracle Ksplice which introduced groundbreaking capabilities to patch user space libraries in Oracle Linux 7 without rebooting. This new feature, plus the extensive zero-downtime kernel patching capabilities already included in Oracle Ksplice, make it an ideal choice for keeping your Oracle Linux infrastructure up to date and secure.

Today, Oracle is pleased to announce user space patching with Oracle Ksplice is now available for Oracle Linux Premier Support customers using Oracle Linux 6..."

That's a question a child might ask, but for CIOs today, the answer centers on a completely different meaning. Top tech chiefs and company executives are trying to figure out how to use cloud technology and to what degree it should be part of their company strategy.

Without a doubt, statistics show the cloud can no longer be ignored:..."

"Of all industries, the financial services industry is the most exposed to risk in the cloud, according to a new report. Not surprisingly, security awareness is higher in technology firms, with most saying excessive sharing of data in the cloud is a top cyber-security concern. Conducted by the security intelligence arm of CloudLock, the report, titled "Riskiest Industries in the Cloud: Where Do You Stand?" It analyzed 10 million users, 1 billion files and 91,000 applications..."

"By the end of 2015, the top 10 data breaches impacted over 160 million customer records and destroyed more than 3 trillion dollars of market value. Gone are the days when the responsibility and impact of security could be relegated deep within locked rooms filled with glowing computer screens. The consistent and silent failure of security technologies has placed us in a world where in order to change outcomes, security decisions must be central to business strategy..."

"Whether you are in the C-suite or on the shop floor, there is probably no shortage of ideas, entrepreneurial spirit, and opportunities waiting to be embraced.

Often the challenge with innovation in large companies is not the dearth of good ideas but the ability to identify, develop and sustain them and even turn them into potentially profitable business propositions.

Innovation is a very broad term and the extent of innovation can vary from incremental core business improvements (below the line innovation) to a major breakthrough or 'eureka' moments (above the line innovation)..."

"In response to the question 'Are leaders born or made?' the subject of a previous Q&A in CIO Insight answered with this: Yes. It was a telling answer, creating a slight chuckle at a clever sidestep to a question-but it also produced what humor often does: truth.

There are people who are born with an innate ability to lead, and there are people who shape themselves into leaders through study, through observation and through pulling forth the leader within..."

The South Florida Technology Alliance and vBeers South Florida invites you to join us for vBeers @ Miami. We meet on the 4th Wednesday of each month at alternating Miami locations,. This month, Chewy.com will be the sponsor.

"The beginning of a new year is traditionally a time for setting resolutions and tackling those goals with vigour. As the year progresses, unfortunately, many of these resolutions fall by the wayside. But whether or not you make it to the gym or go on more holidays, as many Britons have resolved to do this year, there is one goal you should set and keep for your business: creating and/or updating your disaster recovery (DR) strategy..."

"Enterprises are beginning to fully embrace the utility of the cloud, and offsite recovery, as the most effective means of backing up data.

Also, as virtualization continues to gain dominance, enterprises are finding their legacy systems inadequate for recovering data at the speed and currency they need in order to operate a successful business.

In 2016, more enterprises will transition further to cloud-based backup and recovery to support a virtual environment and provide BC..."

"Networking today is not like it once was. Modern network systems are everywhere - in businesses both large and small, schools and homes. They are bigger, more pervasive and increasingly more complex. And, they have to accommodate an ever growing amount of data. The critical linchpin in ensuring these modern network systems operate at an optimal level is the switch; a specialized device that connects other devices together on the network and is responsible for receiving, processing and forwarding data to destination devices. Just as the networking market itself must evolve to meet the changing needs of its users, so too must network switches..."

"Owen DeLong is a Senior Manager of Network Architecture at Akamai Technologies, a leader in content delivery network (CDN) services that help to make the Internet 'fast, reliable, and secure.' He will be speaking at SCaLE 14x about IPv6 adoption (because we're out of IPv4!). Owen is also a member of the ARIN Advisory Council - an advisory group to the Board of Trustees on Internet number resource policy and related matters - and is an active member of the systems administration, operations, and Internet Protocol policy communities.

One challenge, however, is that 10Gbps Ethernet requires CAT 6e cabling. Replacing today's installed base of CAT 5e and CAT 6 copper wiring can be an expensive proposition. Enter the NBASE-T specifications, which boost the speed of legacy twisted-pair wiring to 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps over distances of up to 100 meters..."

"While all the talk at CES this year was on the Internet of Things - from connected cars to smart home systems to wearables in healthcare - one aspect that isn't being talked about is the practical and necessary component.

With that in mind, how exactly do organisations make money from this ubiquitous connectivity and the ensuing avalanche of data?

Key to this is the ability to quickly and easily create monetisation, pricing and mediation schemes, enabling monetisation business strategies that didn't exist yesterday..."

"Despite the buzz surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT) and its game-changing benefits in corporate circles, relatively few projects have made it off the ground, indicates new research from TEKsystems, an IT staffing firm.

In a survey of over 200 IT and business leaders, the company found that only 22 percent of organizations are implementing IoT technologies and services. Seventeen percent of respondents said they currently piloting IoT technologies while 19 percent are in the planning stages. A significant minority, 42 percent, are considering adopting IoT technologies..."

"The Internet of Things (IoT) can be used for a diverse set of tasks, including opening up new business models. A recent Forrester report explores how businesses are embracing IoT.

The Internet of Things (IoT) encompasses so many different aspects of technology that it defies easy explanation. To achieve some measure of clarity, research consultancy Forrester in a recent report advises businesses to focus on specific use cases that relate to their strategy and goals..."

"Linux comes with a host based firewall called Netfilter. According to the official project site:

'netfilter is a set of hooks inside the Linux kernel that allows kernel modules to register callback functions with the network stack. A registered callback function is then called back for every packet that traverses the respective hook within the network stack.' ..."

"The beauty of Linux is that there really is something for everyone. Amazon, Facebook, and Google run their massive infrastructure on Linux. Companies like Samsung use it in their TVs, smartphones, and smart watches. And then there are ordinary users like you and me who use computers to do work.

In this slideshow for 2016 I have picked distros that excel in certain areas. We will see how many of these distros remain on the list in 2017..."

"Cybercrime is quickly rising as one of the leading causes of data center outages.

After having risen from being behind 2 percent of outages in 2010 to 18 percent in 2013, cybercrime caused 22 percent of data center outages in 2015, reported in a recent survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Emerson Network Power. Cybercrime is now the fastest-growing cause of data center outages, the report's authors said in a statement..."

"While overall unplanned data center outages have decreased, those that were the result of targeted DDoS attacks have skyrocketed...

Think housing your servers in a data center rather than squeezing them under your desk is a bulletproof solution?

Well, they might be safer in a data center, but believe it or not, some of the same pitfalls that can create trouble in the office can affect those secure data centers too. Namely UPS failure, human error, and cybercrime..."

"We live in the digital age, and like the industrial age before it, it is a time of evolution and revolution as technology changes our world forever. It is quite easy to get complacent about the advances in technology, because there are so many happening at such speed all around us.

This is even more true for the millennial generation who have grown up in the digital age; a generation that expects everything to be touch screen, to be smart, to be connected..."

"It's notable enough that close to half of the 25 'best jobs in America' named by recruiting site Glassdoor this week are tech-related, but even more striking is the fact that "data scientist" tops the list.

With more than 1,700 active job openings on the site earlier this month and a median base salary of $116,840, data scientist also garnered Glassdoor's top 'job score' ranking and 'career opportunity' score..."

"Your resume is how you sell yourself to a hiring manager or a recruiter, which means you want to avoid a long list of job descriptions. That's the mistake resume writer Andrew Ysasi, president of Admovio and executive director of Kent Record Management, says that Kristine Spence made in her original resume. She focused on highlighting her work experience, but neglected to demonstrate the impact she had on the bottom line of her former companies and the impressive trajectory of her career from manager to senior director of digital marketing..."

"Training at the gym and running your company have more in common than you may realize. If you want to build muscle, then key in on focus, determination and single-tasking. You're not going to be able to press 845 pounds if you're busy scoping out the gym members, checking text messages or admiring your pump in the mirror. You have to connect with the body part you're training, concentrate on the muscle group, the weights and that single moment because one wrong move and you're looking into the eyes of an EMT..."

"Tech companies' perks and benefits have long been the envy of a number of industries, but what about the actual work itself? It turns out that tech jobs accounted for nearly half of Glassdoor's '25 Best Jobs in America' report. You may be surprised by the tech jobs that made the list..."

"Social media has taken the world by storm through dozens of websites, mobile apps, and other forms of technologies improving the way people communicate with each other. There are social media sites that have millions of members allowing them to share photos, videos, text messages, and more on a regular basis. In fact, social media now accounts for almost 80 percent of the time we spend online. We are all members of Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or other social media accounts and these accounts are often prone to hacking..."

"Chief Architect for the central US at Red Hat, Thomas Cameron, has been in the information technology industry since 1993, and has worked with industries ranging from high tech manufacturing, multinational financial services, information technology services, education, energy production, transportation, and large scale retail services.

Prior to his two presentations at 14th annual Southern Californian Linux Expo (SCaLE 14x) this year - An Introduction to Container Security and Gluster Quickstart - I caught up with Thomas to discuss container security..."

"It's hard to predict what the biggest thing to hit the data center will be in 2016. Big data? Hyper-convergence? Hybrid cloud? I've decided that this is the year that containers will arrive in a big way -- much earlier and faster than many expect, catching unprepared IT shops by surprise.

Unlike other technologies like big data that require vision and forward investment, containers are a natural next step for application packaging, deployment and hosting that don't require massive shifts in mindset or vision..."

"Over the past decade, the database market has undergone a transformation that affects both the IT and the finance departments. In fact, as data becomes increasingly vital to business success, some of the most enduring collaborations in many organizations are being formed between finance (which must keep data management on budget) and IT (which must manage the data effectively). These teams are increasingly working together to streamline IT operations and make IT more efficient, freeing up financial resources that can be applied to other areas of the business..."

"Along with social, mobile and cloud, analytics and associated data technologies have earned a place as one of the core disruptors of the digital age. 2015 saw big data initiatives moving from test to production and a strong push to leverage new data technologies to power business intelligence. As 2016 gets underway, five insiders share their predictions for what 2016 holds in store for the data and analytics space.

Scott Gnau, CTO of Hadoop distribution vendor Hortonworks, predicts the following trends will dominate data and analytics in 2016:..."

"Europe's top antitrust authority is on the lookout for companies using big data to stifle competition, although it hasn't spotted any problems yet, according to Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

It's good news when companies use data to cut costs and offer better service, the European Commission's competition chief said at the DLD conference in Munich on Sunday..."

"Every year the protection of private and confidential information gains more and more attention. According to the World Quality Report 2015-16, the only global report for application quality, security is the most highly ranked priority in the IT strategies used by survey respondents.

Until recently, a company's applications were mainly internal and its security was viewed as low risk. However, with the increased adoption of web-based, mobile and cloud-based applications, sensitive data has become accessible from different platforms. These platforms are highly vulnerable to hacking, especially if they are low-cost or free..."

Windows 10 has evolved to support PCs, tablets, and hybrid devices -- including those by third-party OEMs as well as Microsoft's own Surface Pro and Surface Book. And despite a miniscule overall market share, the company continues to invest in both the OS and hardware development of Windows Phone, with some models now able to function as ultra-portable PCs..."

"The wearables market is booming and growing. In 2015, consumers purchased an estimated 72.1 million wearables. The question is, "Are wearables part of BYOD?"

The short answer currently to the question is "No". The longer answer is "Maybe". The super, crystal ball, future answer is "Probably". The reason that wearables are not currently part of BYOD is that they simply are too simple..."

"California this week became the second state to consider legislation banning the sale of encrypted smartphones that can't be unlocked by their manufacturers, joining New York.

The California bill, AB 1681, introduced this week by assembly member Jim Cooper, proposes legislation similar to that proposed in New York, which targets devices that cannot be unlocked or decrypted by the manufacturer or operating system developer..."

"The long-running encryption dispute between law enforcement officials and private sector industry professionals took an unexpected turn Thursday when the National Security Agency's (NSA) director, Admiral Mike Rogers, changed his stance on encryption technologies.

'Encryption is foundational to the future,' Rogers said, speaking at the Washington D.C.-based think tank the Atlantic Council. He said he sees arguments against encryption as 'a waste of time.' The comments have left industry pros wondering what prompted the abrupt change in strategy..."

"After using the same DDR3 standard for eight years, RAM manufacturers everywhere have begun the process of rolling out their latest memory chips in the form of DDR4. But what benefits (if any) does DDR4 have over DDR3 in real-world applications, and are they worth the increased cost?..."

Why: Spurred by the massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management and subsequent cybersecurity guidance from the Office of Management and Budget and U.S. CIO Tony Scott, ACT-IAC initiated a Community Cybersecurity Innovation Initiative to get a wider perspective and solicit recommendations from industry, government and academia to deepen and enhance federal cybersecurity efforts..."

Michael Hickins writes in Forbes, "Software developers have long used their peers as sounding boards and for help on development projects - sometimes in person, but more frequently through online forums. Increasingly, these forums are also becoming places where developers earn status among their peers that can help advance their careers..."

"Our coding crystal ball offers developers meaningful bets for the next five years -- but few guarantees given the rate of change for tech...

Some scientists say time moves forward at a constant rate. The clever ones argue that everything changes near the speed of light. But none of this explains the increasing rate of change in the world of tech. It keeps accelerating a bit more every time you look.

If you're wondering where to place your next development bet, looking five years out can seem like mere guesswork. Anticipating tech's future is nearly impossible, much less the skills and tools that will be relevant given the impact of innovations to come. But there are inklings that can be gleaned from the tea leaves of today's tech landscape -- glimmers of the future of programming through the fog..."

"In this special guest feature, John Kirkley writes that a recent panel discussion with three Intel Fellows looked at how to move beyond traditional HPC for the future of scalable applications performance.

When three distinguished Intel Fellows - Bill Magro, Mark Seager and Al Gara - sat down together to discuss HPC's Next Phase, the conversation was quite lively because all three are working on cutting edge aspects of the rapidly changing and evolving technology portfolio for the high performance computing ecosystem..."

"As Chief Evangelist of Intel Software Products, James Reinders spends most of his working hours thinking about and promoting parallel programming. He&#146;s essentially a professor at large, attuning himself to the needs of software developers with an interest in parallel programming so he can offer guidance on techniques, ways of learning, and ways to 'think parallel - all with a strong Intel bent, naturally..."

"This week, Industry Outlook asks IO's Trevor Slade about how and why data center operators can use high-performance computing (HPC) to their benefit. Trevor is responsible for IO's colocation strategy, including product planning, roadmap development, requirements definition and product-launch execution. Having nearly a decade of experience in business, product development and technology management in various industries, including financial services, land development, telecom and data centers, Trevor brings a wealth of expertise in meeting the needs of customers through continuous innovation..."

Nexenta (@Nexenta), the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS), and the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering at San Jose State University (SJSU), a U.S. News and World Reports top-ranked public engineering program, today announced they have jointly developed an advanced computing class, to address the needs of organizations seeking expertise in big data, cloud computing and software-defined data centers (SDDCs).

The course for exceptional undergrad and grad students, entitled "CmpE 297 Special Topic in Software-Defined Storage", will be offered for the first time Fall Semester 2016. Putting theory into practice to prepare students for the world outside of the classroom, the class will combine practical hands-on labs with guest instruction from technical experts currently employed at Silicon Valley-based companies SanDisk (SNDK) (NASDAQ), Milpitas, Calif.) and Supermicro (SMCI(NASDAQ), San Jose, Calif.). Registration for Fall Semester classes opens May 31.

What is it about garages that tend to attract all kinds of "extra" things to be stored in them? It's as if empty space reserved for the family car has a special gravitational field, the same as your junk drawer that pulls in everything from that IBM Selectric Typewriter to the complete set of Playbills from every play you've seen since high school. Garages also attract things of value, like that 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card your dad gave you. At the time, who knew it would be worth $1.5 million?

Following a meeting today among Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and Cisco Italy General Manager Agostino Santoni, Cisco has announced a series of strategic commitments in Italy that will total $100 million over the next three years.

The news today sees Cisco complement the heightened focus from the Italian government to drive digital transformation and reap the benefits of digitization by way of a twofold approach: increasing digital skills and awareness in Italy, and fostering Italy's innovative technology startup community...

Dell opened its first dedicated Internet of Things (IoT) lab in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region. Based within the Dell Solution Centre in Singapore, the new facility, launched in collaboration with Intel, was unveiled by Glen Burrows, Area Vice President, Dell OEM, Asia Pacific and Japan and Prakash Mallya, Managing Director, South East Asia, Intel. The lab features Dell and Intel IoT solutions with end-to-end platform facilities allowing customers to test the products and consult with Dell technical experts. This is Dell's third IoT lab globally, following the successful launch of its labs in Silicon Valley, U.S. and Limerick, Ireland.

Dell extended its reach in Open Networking with the announcement of Operating System 10 (OS10) from Dell Networking. This next-generation networking software is designed to introduce new levels of software flexibility and programmability in large-scale data center environments. The OS10 software environment advances the functionality of modern data centers by disaggregating network software, so customers have more choice in how software is used throughout IT operations.

'Modern, software-defined, data centers require a fresh approach to operations - not just for the network, but across compute and storage elements as well,' said Tom Burns, vice president and general manager, Dell Networking and Enterprise Infrastructure. 'OS10 gives customers a future-ready springboard to innovate their networks and data center infrastructure more quickly and consistently, affording customers greater efficiency and capability at scale.'

Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella announced a new three-part initiative to ensure that Microsoft's cloud computing resources serve the public good. As part of this initiative the recently formed Microsoft Philanthropies will donate $1 billion of Microsoft Cloud Services, measured at fair market value, to serve nonprofits and university researchers over the next three years.

Microsoft's three-part commitment focuses on ensuring the cloud can serve the public good in the broadest sense by providing additional cloud resources to nonprofits, increasing access for university researchers and helping solve last-mile Internet access challenges.

Symantec Corp. provided an update on expected results for the third fiscal quarter of 2016. The Company anticipates that it will report GAAP Revenue, Non-GAAP Operating Margin and Non-GAAP diluted EPS for the third fiscal quarter of 2016 that are above the midpoint of the guidance provided in its press release dated November 5, 2015.

That guidance, and these views on anticipated results for the third quarter, exclude the operations of Symantec's Veritas information management business. Symantec is filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission a Form 8-K setting forth certain information regarding the preliminary operating results of Veritas for the quarter ended January 1, 2016.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced fourth-quarter 2015 diluted earnings from continuing operations of $4.59 per share, down 17 percent year-to-year. Operating (non-GAAP) diluted earnings from continuing operations were $4.84 per share, compared with operating diluted earnings of $5.81 per share in the fourth quarter of 2014, down 17 percent. The prior-year gain from the divestiture of the System x business impacted operating diluted earnings per share from continuing operations by 20 points...

IBM announced it has acquired Ustream, Inc., a provider of cloud-based live video streaming services. The move will extend the IBM Cloud platform to help enterprise clients unlock the value of video, a rapidly-evolving digital media and data asset. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ustream provides cloud-based video streaming to enterprises and broadcasters for everything from corporate keynotes to live music concerts. The company streams live and on-demand video to about 80 million viewers per month for customers such as NASA, Samsung, Facebook, Nike and The Discovery Channel.

"Fujitsu has launched a competition encouraging young people to solve real-world challenges using internet of things (IoT) technology.

Operation Innovation is open to students attending university technical colleges (UTCs) to encourage them to use technology to create commercial resolutions to solve real-world problems that may not exist yet.

The winners will be given a trip to Fujitsu Labs HQ in Germany to present their ideas to Fujitsu chief technical officer (CTO) Joseph Reger. Their idea may also be implemented..."

Fujitsu announced the expansion of its Gold Partnership with Cisco Systems, a leading global IT company with market-dominant computing and data transport solutions. This strengthened North America partnership builds upon the collective retail solutions currently available through Fujitsu and is set to revolutionize how retailers improve their bottom line through increased mobility and customer engagement. Cisco and Fujitsu will provide demonstrations of the associated solutions in the Fujitsu booth (#3805) at the National Retail Federation (NRF) BIG Show on January 17-20, 2016, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

At National Retail Federation Retail's BIG Show, VMware, Inc., a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, showcased solutions and technologies that enable IT to lead retail transformation in the mobile-cloud era. VMware End-User Computing solutions for retail power thousands of stores, including 19 of the 20 top U.S. retailers, to enhance customer engagements, modernize store operations, build highly trained and connected sales teams and improve security and compliance.

The last decade has brought incredible innovation to the retail industry. This provides great opportunity for IT leaders within retail organizations to bring about transformational change and improve business processes. Retailers are seeking technologies to improve customer interactions, leverage new devices and apps to modernize store operations, keep employees trained and informed with real-time information to support collaborative workflows and protect transactions, data and customer information through secure devices and applications.

The Friday Five is a weekly Red Hat blog post with 5 of the week's top news items and ideas from or about Red Hat and the technology industry. Consider it your weekly digest of things that caught our eye.

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, announced that it has been named a leader in two Forrester research reports ranking private cloud software suites and hybrid cloud management solutions. 'The Forrester Wave: Private Cloud Software Suites, Q1 2016' and 'The Forrester Wave: Hybrid Cloud Management Solutions, Q1 2016' reports assessed vendors in terms of their current offerings, market presence, and strategy, and Red Hat was placed as a leader in both reports...

Collaboration, it's what we do. And so should the industry. Here's why: Cybercrime has infiltrated the lives of IT professionals, corporate employees, business owners and consumers in a way that goes beyond flashy headlines. A state of constant defense against the cybercriminal invasion of all aspects of our lives, personal and professional, is the 'new normal.' Whether we, as IT security organizations, have proactive measures in place, or not, the state of cybersecurity continues to leave us with the uncomfortable feeling that we are continuously operating on the defensive. What can we do to gain an upper hand?

Level 3 Communications, Inc. increased capacity on its fiber-optic network in Southern Brazil, from Porto Alegre (RS) to Curitiba (PR), providing higher availability, lower latency and higher resiliency to the regional structure throughout Southern Brazil. The expansion provides customers with access to Level 3's enhanced network capabilities and portfolio of data, security, video, voice and unified communications solutions to support today's emerging technologies. Through this expansion, customers will benefit from cost-effective, alternative options to route traffic and connect between the south of Brazil and other business centers around the globe.

EMC Corporation announced the results of a new study showing that IT and business executives agree that digital transformation and the use of hybrid clouds are key to competitive success in the digital age. Conducted by IDG Research Services, the study reveals that organizations must 'think digital' to enhance customer experiences, increase flexibility, drive business opportunities, and decrease costs. With 92% of respondents stating that their organization's competitive strategy calls for digital business initiatives and 90% calling digital business a 'top priority' for the next one to three years, the transformative power of digital business is a key driver for IT today.

"Hitachi Data Systems is taking its marketing attack direct to XtremIO and Pure Storage with a brand new, entry-level, all-flash array storage line, the HFS A series, separate from its existing VSP and HUS arrays.

The HFS (Hitachi Flash Storage) product comes in three models: A220, A250 and A270, each with dual active:active controllers and up to 60x1.6TB SSDs in a 2U rack enclosure. The A270 controller has 256GB of total cache, with the others at 128GB..."

New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX), a leader in data center and colocation solutions, and Windstream, a leading provider of large bandwidth transport, announced the expansion of Windstream's 100G long-haul express network from the company's 21715 Filigree Court, Ashburn, Virginia Point of Presence (PoP) to NJFX's carrier-neutral data center in Wall Township, New Jersey. The expansion will create the first direct network connection between NJFX's Meet-Me Room (MMR) at the Tata Communications' Cable Landing Station (CLS) and Ashburn.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2016, F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) announced revenue of $489.5 million, reflecting 6 percent growth from $462.8 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

GAAP net income was $89.7 million ($1.28 per diluted share), compared to $89.1 million ($1.21 per diluted share) in the first quarter a year ago. Excluding the impact of stock-based compensation and amortization of purchased intangible assets, non-GAAP net income was $120.6 million ($1.73 per diluted share), compared to $114.2 million ($1.55 per diluted share) in the first quarter of last year.